. >>> also want to go to long beach, new york, because long beach built a wall of sand as a defense against the ocean, and abc's ron claiborne is there to tell us if it's holding. ron? >> reporter: good evening, diane. that wall of the sand berm they built along the shore held out for quite a while but if you look over my shoulder it is all but now obliterated. the pounding surf and rising tide took it out, the erosion the wind, it is gone and that water is flowing from the beach here into the city of 35,000. this suburb of new york city. they're expecting a storm surge of somewhere between 4 and 8 feet. it is possible this entire low-lying barrier island will be overflowed with water in the next 12 hours or so. diane. >> okay, ron. and now, as you have heard, the water is flooding into new york city. and it's where we're tracking the national damage and also the winds are bearing down on the city of skyscrapers tonight, "20/20" anchor chris cuomo is covering this city in this storm. chris. >> reporter: hello, diane. you know, we wish we didn't have to be standing in the water but it's movi